All posts tagged "ios 4"

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"Searching with Google on your mobile phone can be an eye-opening experience. Now your phone's camera can even help to find out more about the world around you."

This is a great addition to the Google Mobile App, and as the video shows above, the Google Goggles feature is easy to use. Take a picture of a landmark and get results about it and the area around you. Or take a picture of the cover of the book and get info on pricing and where you can purchase it. This is only supported on the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, as long as it is running iOS 4. You can find out more about it at the Google Help Center.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

"Three years ago, I had never even held a touchscreen computer. Today I carry one everywhere I go. Apple changed the mobile phone industry with the launch of the iPhone, and appears to be creating a similar sensation with the iPad. Now it's doing everything it can to keep that momentum going, showering us with ads on television and elsewhere, singing the praises of their latest handheld, touch-driven devices."

This is interesting perspective on the "Mac is Dead" opinion, from the founder of Red Sweater Software (think MarsEdit). I like the direction Apple is going, adding things to make your life more mobile, but I certainly don't think the Mac is dead. I enjoy being able to be portable, but I certainly enjoy being able to "compute" in front of a 30+ inch screen using my Mac Mini and wireless keyboard. Advantages to both so I don't think the desktop will ever be completely gone. iOS won't replace my need for OS X (or any of the future versions). What are your thoughts?

Friday, August 13, 2010

"It seems as if Apple dodged a bullet. Ever since the Steve Jobs press conference a couple of weeks ago, in which Apple offered free carrying-case bumpers (or full refunds) to anyone whose iPhone 4 exhibited the 'signal drops when you hold the phone a certain way' problem, the jeering and mockery online seems to have gone into hibernation."

Some simple but overlooked tips for using your iPhone 4. I especially like the changes to the combined contacts list.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

"Android wasn't the only operating system with an update today. The iPhone got a security update, 4.0.2, that stops people from using malicious code that was released last week to take over your phone."

On top of that, Apple also released an update for the iMac, that fixed a display issue with the 21.5 inch iMac having to do with brightness, as well as the iPad 3.2.2 update. They didn't want to leave Windows users out of the loop either so they updated QuickTime to 7.6.7. The Windows update involved a security update, but OS X wasn't affected so it wasn't given the same update love.

"Android is now larger than the iPhone on the world stage, analysts at Gartner said today. Google's phone platform jumped to 10.6 million phones sold, or enough to overtake the iPhone and take 17.2 percent of the market."

According to the Gartner Group, they "believe" Apple sold more than the 8.47 million shipped, but regardless it still put Apple at 14.2 percent of the market, sliding into fourth place. But at least both were increasing while all the others were decreasing, the biggest fall being Symbian from 51.0% last year to 41.2% as of Q2.

I am pretty sure that the limited supply of iPhone 4 didn't help things, and the fact that it continues today (as noted in this Apple Insider article) implies to me that the demand is there, they just need the product to fill it.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

"...a momentary panic set in when I discovered my Visual Voicemail was absent and my phone was dialing up voicemail instead. Luckily the problem is easily resolved."

I ran across this while looking for another article, and thought it might be handy on the off chance that there might be those of you thinking about upgrading to iOS 4 and you run into this visual voicemail access problem. The fix is pretty easy, and outlined step by step in this article.

Monday, August 9, 2010

"The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Apple has not heard of any issues regarding iOS 4 on the iPhone 3GS. This may come as a shock to the nearly 1,000 replies on a single Apple Support Discussions forum thread where users are complaining of random reboots in the middle of calls after installing the update."

These types of situations drive me crazy. On one hand, Apple reps and support say they have not heard about any problems, yet on the other hand you have numerous postings on the support forum about this very problem. The disconnect between the two groups is very annoying sometimes. How about you 3GS owner, have you experienced your calls dropping? Or any other problem for that matter if you have upgraded to iOS 4 on your 3GS?

Thursday, July 29, 2010

"Apple is to launch an official investigation into reports that the iOS4 operating system is having an adverse affect on older iPhone devices, specifically the iPhone 3G."

With ongoing reports of iOS 4 killing second generation iPhone 3G performance, Apple is officially looking into the issue, according to WSJ Blogs. Issues reportedly include slowness, crashing apps, the OS not responding to button presses, terrible battery life, and heat problems. Apple is reportedly readying iOS 4 version 4.1, currently in beta testing, after version 4.01 fixed some, but not all of (or enough of) the current problems. In the meantime, conventional wisdom is now "if you haven't upgraded your iPhone 3G to iOS 4, don't." Wait for V4.1 to (hopefully) fix the problems.

Monday, July 19, 2010

"For $50, artist David Lanham will connect with you over FaceTime, hand-sketch an image in about ten minutes, then use his digital arsenal to create a fully-realized digital portrait that you can use for just about anything. He’ll even mail a print to your house."

Pretty cool, eh? David broke his foot playing soccer, and is spending his down time creating original avatars using FaceTime. The FaceTime session takes about ten minutes, and the drawing time about an hour. The results are emailed to you, and you can even buy a larger print if you'd like. Dave can be reached via his email address in the article, or via Twitter. Great idea!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

"Too lazy to cancel your $99 MobileMe automatic subscription renewal and make the jump to one of the many free alternatives? Don't worry, your lethargy has paid off this morning as Apple introduces its new MobileMe iDisk 1.2 app and a beta version of its new MobileMe Calendar."

The MobileMe Calendar Beta design follows the calendar design of the iPad, and also adds enhancements such as sharing, event invitations and publishing a calendar to groups. The best upgrade in my opinion is the adoption of the CalDAV standard. If you decide to give MobileMe Calendar beta a try, Apple has set up a page on how to prepare for it [link]. As far as the iDisk update, it is now optimized for the iPad screen, supports iOS 4 multitasking and gives you the option to open your iDisk docs in apps that are compatible with it, such as iBooks.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

"While Apple's iPhone 4 signal loss issues have been receiving significant attention since the device's launch late last month, a number of other problems have been seeing sporadic reports, and one of the most prevalent of late has been problems with the device's proximity sensors designed to sense when the phone is held up to the user's face and deactivate the device's screen, thus preventing unintended activation of buttons on the display."

According to some reports if you do the following it provides a fix:

...open the Settings app, then go to General -> Reset, and choose "All Settings" at the top (note: this will not erase your apps, media, or other data -- that's what the "Erase All Content and Settings" button just below this option is for. "Reset All Settings" just reverts any Settings preferences you've customized back to their factory defaults). One Twitter follower, Brian Partridge, reported that AppleCare told him to just use Reset -> Reset Network Settings, not all settings, and it worked.

The iPhone Blog also has some tips regarding this issue [link]. I'm feeling lucky that all I've had to deal with is a battery issue, that was fixed pretty easily by draining it and recharging. How about you, have you experienced any of the problems we've posted on with your iPhone 4 or with iOS 4?

"Users of Nike+ compatible iPhone and iPod touch models are reporting a number of issues using the exercise companion system. Issues reported on a lengthy Nike forum thread include difficulty in linking with sensor, the inability to resume a workout after a pause, lack of spoken feedback, uncomfortably loud spoken feedback, workout distance totals that are double the true distance, failure of new workout distances to be added to workout totals, out of order playlists, and more."

Seems like it's Apple problem day today doesn't it? You can check out the Nike+ thread here, but suffice to say, the system isn't working like it should after the update to iOS 4. Nike is working on a fix but no time has been noted as to when this will happen.

Monday, July 5, 2010

"I'm going to be honest, I really could care less about Apple's current antenna/signal reporting woes right now. Businesses and users who use their iPhone with a Microsoft Exchange server are facing a much bigger issue that, by and large, is not being covered."

I haven't seen that many stories on this Exchange issue (here is one), and it sounds like it is/was a big problem, mostly because the companies couldn't do the fix system-wide. The update to fix the problem has to be done individually, and that isn't as easy as it sounds per the author of this story.

"The iPhone 4 does video, and it does video decently. In our recent review, we noted that an HD Flip camera still seems to offer better results in some areas, but that likely won't matter to the millions of people who already own iPhone 4s."

Take the video, edit it, process it and upload it...all on the same device. Thus the draw of the iPhone 4 and iMovie for iPhone. Ars Technica breaks it down for you and shows you the ropes to get you rolling on your way to that director's chair. Ok, you might not get the director's chair but at least you will know how to use iMovie on your iPhone.

"One of the best parts about traveling is sharing your experiences with friends and family back home."

One way to document all your adventures is to create your own blog, or go to a site like everlater where they help you create one. Or any number of apps and web-based tools. If you get lost in the choices, have a look at this article where they narrow it down to a few of what they consider some of the best travel tools. After all, it is travel season yes?

"If you were disappointed that you can't upload full 720p video from your iPhone 4 to YouTube without transferring it to a computer first, then check out the latest update to the free app Pixelpipe."

Once you create that masterpiece on iMovie for iPhone, you can now use Pixelpipe [iTunes Link] to get it out to the masses. You can upload to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, MobileMe, Viddler and many more sites. I used this on my 3GS to get some of my daughter's video on YouTube but ran into stability problems. I'm hoping with this update they fixed those problems. But it's free so it's not like I'm out any money if it doesn't quite work right. Just the cost of annoyance I suppose.

"Whoa, Apple just admitted that there's an issue with the iPhone 4's reception, but it might not be what you think..."

According to the Apple press release, it has been a software problem since the release of the original iPhone. Basically the reception bars are reading "too high," giving you the impression your signal strength is stronger than it actually is. To correct this, they are adopting the recently released AT&T formula to calculate the reception strength, which will require a software update. This will also make the image of the bars a little larger and easier to see. Since this was a problem since the original iPhone, they are also going to make the update available for the 3G and 3GS. No mention on holding the phone correctly though.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

"A film shot and edited entirely with an iPhone 4 shows just how powerful Apple's new iDevice can be, especially in the hands of a pro. At the same time, however, we think that it might inspire many an aspiring filmmaker, too, as the second half of this film offers behind-the-scenes footage that shows just how it was done."

Great example of how you really can turn out some quality film work on a device such as the iPhone 4. I wouldn't have guessed it was from an iPhone if I hadn't read about it beforehand. I especially like the behind the scenes footage at the end of the movie.

"It hasn't gotten quite the attention of the iPhone 4's antenna problems or its proximity sensor troubles, but iOS 4 has caused some heartbreak for corporate users who connect to Exchange servers -- checking mail or syncing contact and calendars can stall out interminably, with no option but to restart and try again."

According to Apple, "immediately after updating to iOS 4, some users may notice that Exchange ActiveSync Mail, Contacts or Calendars do not sync, or sync very slowly. In addition, some Exchange Server administrators may notice their servers running slowly." The problem is the default timer set for a 30 second timeout, so the update sets the timeout to 240 seconds, which appears to fix this syncing issue for most users.